


Last Night

by Mix Stitch (Synph)



Category: DCU (Comics), Forever Evil (Comics)
Genre: Abusive Relationships, Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Domestic Violence, Earth-3, M/M, Minor Violence, Power Imbalance, Unhealthy Relationships
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-10-27
Updated: 2014-10-27
Packaged: 2018-02-22 21:24:39
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 957
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2522300
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Synph/pseuds/Mix%20Stitch
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Talon comes back to the nest for the last time.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Last Night

**Author's Note:**

> Playing fast and loose with Forever Evil canon, here we have a track where Thomas Wayne Jr. is directly responsible for the Graysons’ death instead of the Earth-3 Joker and Richard can’t resist coming back to the man. (Oh yeah, and he doesn’t die because I’m all about living Robins/alt-universe Robins)

Richard returns to Wayne Manor in the dead of night, when most of the house’s inhabitants are sleeping. He doesn’t know why he’s here, creeping through hallways that hold the faintest scent of blood amidst the heavier smell of dust and disuse, when he could be miles away with the resistance.

But something drives him — has been driving him since he woke up in the early hours of the morning with Thomas’s name on his lips — to sneak into the big house that overlooks Gotham City on one side and the inky black waters of the bay on the other.  

It’s only been a few weeks maybe since Richard up and left in the middle of the night after discovering one of Thomas’s biggest secrets.

Not much has changed in his absence. The security staff remains unobservant and unwilling to change the lock codes to the system. The guard dogs still recognize him and come to him in a darkly furred wave of muscle with their stumpy tails. Even Richard’s rarely used bedroom on the far side of the manor from Thomas’s rooms still look the same.

Aside from the fear tightening Richard’s throat, it almost feels as though he never left.

The door to the master suite isn’t locked. It never is. Even when he used to share the room with Thomas along with the big bed inside, the door was never locked. After all, if the rest of the Crime Society fears coming too close to Owlman when in public, the resistance wouldn’t dare try his bedroom door in the middle of the night.

Thinking about knocking, Richard pauses, his knuckles resting against a solid oak door that he knows is backed by nth metal. Underneath his skin the door is cool and dusty, a thin layer of the stuff clinging to Richard’s skin before he wipes it off on the side of his leg. Aside from Richard, Alfred is the only other person that is welcome to come this far into Thomas’s personal space and Richard has to smother a quiet huff of laughter at the thought of that nasty little man doing something as mundane as _dusting_.

For some reason, it’s that thought about being one of only two people that Thomas trusts ( _trusted_ ) that spurs Richard onward. When he turns the doorknob and exerts a mild amount of force, the door swings open on hinges that cut through the silence with their squeaking.

Richard resists the instinctive urge to flinch and apologize, choosing instead to squeeze through the gap left by the partly opened door and then push it closed behind him.

"I didn’t think you’d come back to me," Thomas says from much too close to Richard who tenses up against the door. A heavy hand moves to rest on Richard’s shoulder instead of the hip that the man usually grabs when they’re close. Thomas brushes the tips of his fingers over where Richard’s overly long hair has escaped its binding, touching Richard as though attempting to remind himself what he likes about the other man. Thomas’s voice and touch are both tender in a way that has always worked on Richard in the past, but instead of feeling heady with lust, Richard only feels cold.

"I shouldn’t have come back," Richard says, his own voice low as he stares at Thomas’s chest instead of at his face. "But I needed —" He makes himself look at Thomas’s face with those cold blue eyes. "I needed closure. I needed to say goodbye."

Thomas stiffens. “Goodbye?”

Richard shrugs off Thomas’s hand. “I have forgiven you for a lot of horrible things, Thomas. I even forgave you for those replacements you had waiting in the wings to take my place. But I refuse to forgive you for this.”

Thomas’s usual mask shatters, blankness shifting as rage replaces the placid look on his face. The moves, faster than Richard remembers, and slams Richard’s back against the door hard enough to hurt. And then, before Richard can fight back, Thomas gets a grip on his throat that keeps Richard from taking in too deep a breath.

"You’re mine," Thomas says, his voice a low rasp against Richard’s ear.

Richard responds to the stimuli in the most predictable way ever, cheeks warming with a flush as his body starts to tighten with desire. Shaking his head as if to clear it, Richard makes himself ignore his arousal in favor of the anger that comes at Thomas’s careless manhandling.

'I was,” Richard replies sharply. “Until I found out what you did to my parents.”

Thomas shakes him by his throat.  “No,” he barks. “You always suspected —”

"But I didn’t _know_ ,” Richard hears himself cry out, voice hoarse with pain both emotional and physical. “I didn’t know for sure until you told me. If you hadn’t, things would still be like they used to be.” Richard squeezes his eyes shut. “But you did and they’re not…  I need to go.”

"I won’t let you," Thomas snarls, his pale blue eyes wide as he presses Richard even harder against the bedroom door.

Richard shakes his head and then, out of Thomas’s line of sight he lets the poison tipped needle secreted in his glove slide free. He jabs Thomas with it once, sinking it in until the man in front of him stiffens from the pain, and pushes him aside as the poison starts to take effect.

"I won’t apologize," Thomas calls out in a voice that’s slurred with pain.

Richard doesn’t look back as he heads for the nearest open window. Honestly, it wasn’t as if he was actually expecting any such concession from the most powerful man in the world. It’s painful, yes, but not exactly a surprise.


End file.
